British singer Jessie J attends the launch of BBM Music and the Blackberry 7 Smartphone Collection on September 20, 2011 in London, United Kingdom. Millions of Blackberry users around the world are facing a third day of service outages, with Blackberry down again as of October 12, 2011. There are new reports of service disruptions in the United States and Canada. The smartphone’s maker, Research in Motion (RIM), has blamed a “core switch failure.”
As BlackBerry users feverishly check their phones for signs of life— also known as a blinking red light— they are finding a way to sound off on Research In Motion. Since RIM can’t check their emails either, BlackBerry customers have hit the Twitter circuit in hopes of being heard.
The BlackBerry outage has spread like chicken pox across the world, starting in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East Monday and hitting the United States and Canada on Wednesday.
Read more at GlobalPost: Blackberry down for third day, with service disruptions reported in U.S., Canada
RIM blamed the email and BlackBerry Messenger outage on an internal technical glitch– a failed switch and an inoperable backup, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Currently trending on Twitter, Dear BlackBerry is a way for RIM to feel the pain of their customers, in 140 characters or less.
Suffering social withdrawals, Twitter user bajanswaggboy tweeted, “Dear Blackberry… PLEASE WORK. Sincerely, me who is socially deprived.”
Read more at GlobalPost: Blackberry down again as service outages spread to Brazil, Argentina and Chile
“Dear Blackberry, I went from having a smart phone to having an over sized calculator. Thanks a lot. – frustrated customer,” tweeted iTweetFacts.
iPhone users have also joined the conversation, but rather than complaints their gloating tweets show little sympathy to BlackBerry customers.
“Dear Blackberry, Everyone seems to want me now. You jealous? Sincerly, iPhone,” tweeted WeHoranAmy.
If you could actually BBM right now, what would you tell RIM?
Read more at GlobalPost: Venezuela: Death by BlackBerry
Without federal support, local stations, especially in rural and underserved areas, face deep cuts or even closure. Vital public service alerts, news, storytelling, and programming like The World will be impacted. The World has weathered many storms, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to being your trusted source for human-centered international news, shared with integrity and care. We believe public media is about truth and access for all. As an independent, nonprofit newsroom, we aren’t controlled by billionaire owners or corporations. We are sustained by listeners like you.
Now more than ever, we need your help to support our global reporting work and power the future of The World.